Slingshot SST compared to 2012 Rally in Madison, Wi.

[toyletbowl]

Good morning....good afternoon....good evening,

A little history.

I run a kite dealership in Madison, Wi....USA and have been in the business for over 10 years. Riding 15.

I like a lot of kites on the market, but love very few. I'm tough on my suppliers when needed and I've been holding on to my 2012 Rally quiver for years due to not finding any other kite I've tried that I like better than the 2012 Rally in WAVES or super aggressive riding.

Each year, I have between 25-30 demo and school kites. Most are demos and I sell them off every year. Except my 2012 Rally's. Those green bags are still in my mix. THEY ARE NOW ALL UP FOR SALE. See why below.....

We've been on Slingshot's tail for years to bring back the 2012 Rally. They said they were making a new wave kite for 2016, so I was stoked, but also skeptical.

I'll get to the review and comparison soon.

I had a chance to try a prototype SST a while back and was impressed, but gave it a 4 out of 5. It wasn't quite finished.

I was still skeptical and told Neil H., that I'm skeptical and he said, "trust me Bob."

I had a chance this week to ride the 10m - 2 times, 8m and 6m all in a few days back to back to back. First I lent the 10m to a friend. I let him try it straight out of the bag, while I was training someone else. He's one of the better riders in the area and also loves the 2012's. So I'm a little nervous wondering if he's going to like it.

He comes back and basically says...."take my money."

Ok.....so if he's impressed, I need to try this kite. I let a second person try it and he loves it. I take it out and after riding it for 10 minutes, I'm screaming and yelling with no-one near me knowing I can NOW SELL MY 2012's. I found my new wave kite.

So here is the comparison. All of the riding was on our lakes, but I/we can tell a lot even when not on a powered wave.

In order of importance to me:

1) Turning speed. 2016 SST is Fast. Not quick, but Fast turning. Quick is good....Fast is great. The faster the better as far as I'm concerned. 6m and 8m are lightning fast. Similar to 2012 Rally. Check.

2) Turning radius. 2016 SST is more of a pivot turn if you need or arcing if you back off of the bar movements. Smother than 2012 Rally. Check.

3) Drifting. Holy mother. This kite drifts with no flutter at all and once reengaged, doesn't all of a sudden pull your arms off. Much better than 2012 Rally.
*Side note: Some kites will lose the ability to steer if the bar is pushed out all the way or heavily depowered. Not this kite. I could rip deep downwind and depower hard and control the kite with one hand with just a tad of upper hand pressure to keep it in place. Damn Neil.....you told me so and I'm a believer. Checkmate. I'm done and convinced this kite rocks. The rest is gravy.

4) Stability. Huh? Stable to me usually means boring. Not on this kite. It's not only stable, but it doesn't flutter at all. I think it made a little noise once when I was doing a tack transition on my surf board and downlooped it right through the power zone, but not much at all. Much better than 2012 Rally.

5) Jumping? Can't tell you myself because I only rode it with the surf board, but the other guys really liked it.

6) Relaunch. 2012 Rally might be a tad better just due to a rounder leading edge curve, but the SST is excellent. I haven't had a chance to try in lighter winds.

7) Pull and power. The 2016 SST has more pull than I expected. I'd say similar to the 2012 Rally's, but the larger size 2012's probably have a little better overall low end. Just a guess. The kite has a really consistent pull and absorbs gusts much much better than the 2012's.

Depower. The SST has a lot of depower, and I had no problem doing tack transitions with this kite. On some kites....2016 Rally's.....will pull too hard with the kite overhead when tacking. Not the SST....easy to do tacks. On our last day of riding, I was riding the 10m Lit....no problem, but should have been on an 8m. Went to 8m and was lit...no problem. Should have been on the 6m. Went to the 6m and was lit once again. Geez....this kite handles gusts like a champ.

For the first time, all my 2012 Rally's are now up for sale.

The SST is not only a phenomenal wave riding kite, but will excel in aggressive freestyle and freeriding.

The SST at first glance it looks like an RPM, but with a lot of the characteristics of the 2012 Rally.

It has a super simple short bridle and can't wait to try it also on my Alien Air foil board soon.

Any negatives? Not sure yet. Self inflating kites would be nice. I'll add something negative if I come up with it.

Since I'm a dealer, take it for what it's worth, but I'm also a critical rider.

Let me know if anyone wants any of these bad boys or wants to try them as a demo.

As always, buy with confidence from an Authorized dealer....hopefully me/us.

Bob
www.kiteridersllc.com

[CaptainArgh]

Bob, great review! Thanks.

How do the sizes of the SST compare to your 2012 Rallys? I'm asking because you said the 2012s were a bit bigger, but the 2011/2012 Rallys were actually sized smaller than the 2013-2016 Rallys. Just want to compare to make sure I'm picking the right size.

I have not flown the SST yet, but love the look of it. Fat wingtips, deep canopy, and the bridles are super short as you said. For instance, I usually connect the center lines to each rear line pair before folding, but they're too short! Can't wait to fly this bad boy...

[toyletbowl]

Good question.

When the Rally's came out they made the larger ones with a more open profile from tip to tip so they would be a little more powerful and yet somehow yet fast turning. The smaller ones were less open to add stability in higher winds. As we all know though the unsupported wing tips were less stable for larger riders.

So the bigger sizes might be a little more powerful on the low end than the SST, but that's a guess.

Bob
www.kiteridersllc.com

[Jonpnw]

Excellent review. I look forward to trying this kite and then waiting for some to hit the second hand market

[shinn007]

Thanks for your review.

Could you give me your opinion on the upwind capability? I suspect it to be less than the Rally since the drift-ability will come from a position further away from the edge of the wind window.

Also wondering about the size difference. In my opinion the rally feels 'big'. Though I'm 95 kg I'm Always on a smaller size compared to other kiters on my spot.

Could someone perhaps post a picture of the 2 kites covering each other?

[jmach]

"Trust The Bob"

[CaptainArgh]

...Could someone perhaps post a picture of the 2 kites covering each other?

FWIW, I know the following picture does not answer your question, but it's all I have at the moment and may still interest you. (Yes, the 10 SST is in the foreground and the 12 Rally is in the background, so it will look smaller.) BUT, you can see the huge wing tip difference between the two. The Wave also looks like it has a longer center strut than a 10M Rally, but it could just stick up straighter....

Standing next to it, this looked of a comparable size to an RPM. The real crime here is the wind died and I did not get to fly the 10M after taking this picture.

[toyletbowl]

"Trust The Bob"

hahahahahahaha.....keep the blue side up buddy. Welcome to the forum and I want my 14m 2012 Rally back. They stopped at the 12m for the SST.

Weeeeeeeeeee...........


Bob
www.kiteridersllc.com

[ulx]

When I got the SST´s, I put the 8m on the 8m rpm to compare. The SST was a tad smaller, mostly where the tips get rounder than at the rpm.

A bit too early to compare sizewise on the water because most times the wind was so light that I needed the 10m. But that 10m was really enjoyable in light winds and nice waves. The 11m rpm I would have used before was not fast enough for riding in that light wind and activlely steering the kite with riding the wave.

It seems I enjoy the SST´s most with the 20 inch bar and 20m lines, even in the light wind. The kites turn so tight that there is enough distance to travel with the shorter lines.

[toyletbowl]

Here are some pictures to help compare the 2012 Rally to the 2016 SST. Both flat and inflated.

Notes:

1) I also compared a 2016 Rally size wise to the 2016 SST and 2012 Rally and they all look to be accurately sized 10m kites.
2) When inflated, the SST almost looks to dwarf the Rally at first glance. But, they are 10m kites, just the material is placed in different areas. The SST has a lot of material in the wing tips.
3) When I first saw the prototype SST I noticed a tremendous amount of panels compared to any other kite. More panels = more accurate profile, stability and durability.

Here are the pictures to help show the differences.

In the picture above, the center of the LE of the SST lifts off the ground, so it gives a false positive of being a longer center strut. The center strut length is = on the SST and 2012 Rally.

You can also see here that the center strut of the 2012 Rally is angled downward more than the SST which makes the SST look longer and bigger also. Again, the center strut length is the same.